Alice Springs West to the Indian Ocean.

We managed to drive out from Running Waters without any problems and headed along the Skull Spring Road towards Marble Bar. Driving out. Red hills along the Skull Springs Road. A rocky hill beside the road. The road had just been graded. They must have known we were coming. On arrival we checked into the local caravan park and Bruce the caretaker was very friendly and helpful. We did the washing and other chores as well as food shopping. In the evening we went to the Iron Clad Hotel, the local watering hole, for a very large meal and a few drinks at premium prices.  Next day we went 40klms  south of Marble Bar to a see a secret World War 2 Airfield that the Japanese never found. Planes flew as far as Borneo from this airfield. We were able to see lots of relics and evidence of buildings, gun pits, shooting range etc Aircraft Bay Runway Hospital Gun pit beside the runway. We returned to town and after doing some shopping we went out of town a little way to the actual Marble Bar. It is r

We started our day at Running Waters with a lazy bacon and egg breakfast. We spent the rest of the day going for walks, swimming, reading, sleeping, chatting to some campers, swimming again. It was just awful...... not! Our camp. The spring feeding the pool with warm water! A bunyip in the swimming hole. Our camp from the other side. The track in. Some more track. Another view of the water holes.

We were reluctant to leave camp this morning as the area was so beautiful and very peaceful as there were no other campers there. On the way out we took a side track to see a cave with interesting rock formations. We then drove on to a site on our map named Christmas Pool. We met some other people and chatted about campsites etc. Christmas Pool is an Aboriginal Sacred Site and was dry but you could see that when full of water it would be quite beautiful. Explorers had camped here in 1870 something on Christmas Day, hence the name. They had carved their names in the rock. One name was Trotman. We had seen his name on the CSR. There was a bit of sandy country to drive through but we had no problems. Christmas Pool. We continued on driving north west and once we arrived near the Telfer Mine the road turned into a fabulous dirt highway. We didn’t go into the mine but we did see a huge pile of over burden so it is a pretty big mine. Once out onto the main road we drove towards Marble Bar, t

The day started with a beautiful sunrise. The road to Parnngurr was beautiful as there are mining companies out here doing exploration and they maintain the roads. We arrived at Parnngurr in time for fuel and to stock up on some food items from the store including fresh fruit!! We then set off for the National Park stopping to collect wood  on the way.  Our plan was to possible camp at some pools on the way in but when we arrived at the pools over a rough track there was no water. It did however have a good lunch tree. It was very dry so we decided to travel on to Desert Queen Baths.  This NP is not maintained so it was a very corrugated journey and once we got to the turnoff it took over an hour to travel the 18 Klms in to the site.  It was well worth the effort and we decided to stay 2 nights. Take a look. We walked up the gorge rock hopping as we went and saw 4 pools before we turned around. Gum trees were growing out of cracks high up in the rocks. It was beautiful. The next day we

We are getting better at packing up and got away around 8 am today. We knew that we had to do 139 Klms today to get to Georgia Bore so that we only had 80 Klms to do the next morning to get to Parnngurr to get fuel before they shut at 11am. It was very slow going to get to the first few wells as there were many  sand hills to get over. We only had a couple of sand hills that we had to have a second go at and one where  we had to dig Tim and Dot out as the sand was too high for their clearance. You have to drive up sand hills very quickly and this can be quite hairy!! An aboriginal grinding stone. A memorial made from a camel water carrier. This well had been restored. The sides of the Well was lined with timber. Tim using the windlass to raise a bucket of water. Well 25. Well 24. Desolate and fouled by camels and dingoes. It stunk. Well 23. Not much left. The remains of the old fuel dump which is not used any more. On our previous trip we had a drum of fuel delivered and it was there w